"Like a prism, prostitution dynamics reflect and magnify pervasive social patterns. These essays examine those patterns both inside and outside the context of explicit sex commerce. The author elaborates a cross-cultural critique of the categories "prostitute" and "prostitution" as constructed in science, policy and society. At every level of analysis, terms and social categories prove to be slippery, consequential and reflective of an underlying political logic that subordinates women to men. Key to that logic is the whore stigma, an official and traditional mechanism of social control inextricable from issues as diverse as migration, health care, sexual autonomy, employment and freedom of speech."--BOOK JACKET
Includes bibliographical references (pages 155-168) and index
chapter 1. Definition -- chapter 2. The category "Prostitute" in scientific inquiry -- chapter 3. The whore stigma : female dishonor and male unworthiness -- chapter 4. The whore stigma : crimes of unchastity -- chapter 5. Street kids -- chapter 6. Right to asylum, migration, and prostitution -- appendix A. Prostitution questionnaire for all women -- appendix B. Alliance between whores, wives and dykes